Combinatorial processing permits fast evaluation of operations in the manufacture of semiconductor, solar, and green energy devices. Systems supporting combinatorial processing are sufficiently flexible to accommodate the demands of comparing many different processes both in parallel and in series.
Some exemplary operations include cleaning operations, additive operations, patterning operations, subtractive operations, and doping operations. These operations may be used in the manufacture of devices, such as integrated circuits (IC), semiconductors, flat panel displays, optoelectronics, data storage, packaged devices, and so on.
As dimensions of features on the devices continue to shrink, improvements are sought for materials, operations, processes, and sequences of these operations. Research and development (R&D) is typically conducted by running split lots on entire substrates. Unfortunately, this approach is costly and time-consuming.
Efficient experimentation in a timely and cost effective manner has become a highly desirable goal. In particular, combinatorial processing may be usefully applied to operations such that multiple experiments may be performed over a short period of time. Equipment for performing combinatorial processing and characterization should support the efficient data collection offered by the combinatorial processing operations.
A substrate is divided into site-isolated regions so as to perform multiple experiments separately on the substrate. A seal is formed around the bottom of each cell over the edge of the corresponding site-isolated region by using a fluid barrier such as a gas. In particular, the height of the bottom of the cell above an upper surface of the substrate must be selected and maintained precisely to form an effective seal prior to performing combinatorial processing.